00:00.00 archpodnet Welcome to the show. Everyone joining me today is Andrew in California bill also in California after my mic down and Heather again in California. 00:00.00 Andrew The option. 00:05.43 Andrew Um, hey everyone how's it going. 00:07.61 Bill White Hello. 00:13.49 Heather Hi everyone. 00:17.28 archpodnet And I am currently in I was telling heather before we started I think North Carolina I pulled off on a highway restop because I'm on my way back to North Carolina and I'm pretty sure I crossed in North Carolina a few miles ago but I was really paying attention to the exit coming up so here we are well south. 00:28.82 Bill White Well wait which state were you in before this which state there's many that touch North Carolina ok 00:36.39 archpodnet South Carolina and then before that ah before that no sorry, not yeah South Carolina then Georgia then I started in Alabama on Saturday morning. So yeah I know right I had to go back to Alabama for the week because that's where the factory service center for this rv is and we've just had an issue since we bought it with 1 of our systems and. 00:42.14 Bill White All right man. Oh man, global traveler. 00:55.95 archpodnet Think they finally nailed it but it took some took some doing to get it done but I had to take it back to them because they're the experts. So. 00:59.77 Bill White I notice how you're following the bird route where you you're in the south. You don't come up north right? Like you, you heard about that snow stuff in New York and you're like now we're going to stay down in Alabama. 01:13.70 archpodnet You know Rvs aren't typically 4 season they're ah they're solidly 3 season but it really really takes some doing to make them force season because you'll freeze your lines real easy if you don't have like under bay heating and stuff like that you'll ah you'll do some damage. But yeah and somebody asked me the other day. 01:20.12 Bill White Ah, ah, ah. 01:25.47 Bill White Ah. 01:30.73 archpodnet They were like hey how how do you put chains on your rv and I was like you drive south to where you don't need chains if you're in a place where you have to put chains on your RDRV you're making poor life decisions. Yeah I mean. 01:36.13 Bill White Um, ah if you need chains in Alabama something really strange has happened well. 01:46.99 archpodnet Seriously, even if we get like a freak storm down here like I just pull over put my slides out you know and and and watch some Tv or something I don't know I mean I'm home like why I'm not in a hurry. Oh man. So anyway, ah speaking of home. 01:58.75 Bill White Ah, ah oh my gosh. 02:04.77 archpodnet Why don't we all just stay home instead of going to conferences that was a bad segue. But that's what we're going to talk about that's right? That's right, You know we're going. We're talking about professional conferences and I guess kind of the kind of the benefits and and. 02:06.67 Bill White Yeah I don't know about that one we like conferences. That's why we're not going to stay at home. 02:21.55 archpodnet Sort of like what good are they and what do they do for you and we're not endorsing any certain conference and you know we we may tear down a few conferences who knows but here the point is we're just going to have a chat about it and and. You know, maybe why you should belong to them or why you shouldn't belong to them as the case may be but Bill. This is a topic you wanted to bring to us. So what's what's the deal here. 02:37.57 Bill White Yeah, yeah, I mean this this comes around because I asked a question on Facebook on a couple of groups. The archaeo architects forum and north american archeologists about you know, being a member of the professional organizations and folks that don't know I've been on the board of directors for the society. Ah, for historical archeology for the last couple of years I got like one more year left on it and so I've been ah through it on it through the pandemic. Yeah yeah, so he had no joke exactly yeah I've been watching the whole thing unfold through the pandemic and seeing the the complications that the organizations are trying to have and. 03:03.57 archpodnet So you're the so you're the one blame. 03:17.70 Bill White In the past I've been members of a lot of different um archaeology organizations. Great basin. Um, ah the um n wax. So the the northwest ah ah, anthropological. Ah, and ah California society for California archeology and I used to be. 03:27.39 archpodnet Yeah, anthropological. Yeah. 03:36.34 Bill White You know a member of Arizona one in Idaho and so I've I've been part of several different organizations small and large and for the longest time I also am one of the I guess suckers that volunteers on the committees. So I've been part of different committees like the you know academic and professional training committee. Um, ah the coalition for diversity in California archeology I've been on several different committees and like as someone who has been doing this for a long time I remember when I was doing cultural resources. So many people saying? Well why are you spending the time on this like why is this Why do you? Even do it if they don't pay me then I'm not going to be part of the the professional societies and you know I don't see the use of going to it. It's just a conference you know so I you know I I feel like I volunteer for those things because I actually wanted the organization to be better. 04:19.60 archpodnet Only. 04:28.68 Bill White And because there were some stuff that I felt like I got to actually help other people with and so that was the reason why I was part of these organizations but asking folks online. It was pretty clear that a lot of archaeologists specifically the text don't really see any kind of value, especially with the national or international organizations like. 04:44.76 archpodnet Right. 04:46.50 Bill White The saandsh I saw the response was like it costs too much money and I don't really get anything out of it and I can't ever go to the conference but like I'll stay part of the local one and so the the response is like I felt like I had an obligation to do this. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe other people who. You know, realize the economic benefit maybe others have a different approach so I just wanted to talk today about like what are the benefits we get from being part of these organizations so that you know other folks who are listening. Maybe they're not a member of the organization they can hear from people like me who've been doing this for a while. So. You know what do we get out of being a member of these organizations and. 05:21.41 archpodnet Well I got a question for you bill because this is something I've always heard but never really knew the answer on it's born to that anecdotal evidence. But there's 3 I guess 3 reasons why I think somebody would go to a conference to try to gain some sort of benefit 1 is as a vendor. I mean I've been a vendor at all the big conferences and there's an argument to be made for yeah, it works and there's a big argument to say no it doesn't we can talk about that later so vendors probably get some sort of benefit just because they're selling stuff and maybe they sold things and got some awareness out the other one is networking. You know meeting people and talking to people again to kind of take it or leave it. It depends on what you're doing if you're a field tech. Do you really need to meet and talk to people. Are you going to talk to company owners and get a job out of it. Are you going to talk to other field techs and you know what is that going to do for you ultimately, other than maybe make some friendships but is that worth $2000 to go to the essays I don't know. Right? And then the third benefit which I want to ask you about Bill is presenting people always say oh you need to present at the conference and you know some people later in their careers especially c or m'm just present to present right? Maybe maybe there is some sort of mandate for present presenting in the in the you know the money they got to to do whatever project but more likely. They're just their companies paying them to go to a conference that they present and they want to go so they're going to present so they can get paid to go to the conference. But for students for grad students things like that is there really any benefit to presenting at the conference. It's not a peer reviewed journal. It's presenting at a conference which you can suck really bad at and nobody's going to care. You know what? I mean. 06:47.49 Bill White Yeah, but. 06:54.12 archpodnet Like did does that do anything for you as a student to present at a conference other than maybe give you the confidence of doing that but realistically. 07:00.72 Bill White Ah, he yeah you know that's a huge question right? like I didn't I only volunteered when I was an undergrad at the conference because I wanted to be in a space where everybody who hires the archeologist like where all the archaeologists were at so I just volunteered when I was an undergrad and I never went to any of the. Huge ones like I went to Boise State so I just went to the idaho conference which was that bo boise state one year and I think nwack was nearby once and I volunteered again like drove to Spokane or something anyway, I didn't present and when I was a graduate student the the conversation that my advisors were saying was. You know you need to go to the conference because that's where all the people who hire are at and if you want to get this travel grant then you need to come up with a presentation and they're not really going to. You know it. It looks better if you give a 15 minute talk than if you do a poster and I got no coaching on. 07:48.41 archpodnet E nine. 07:53.15 Bill White Presenting so all my early ones they had to have been absolutely horrible. Um, so so like you know you give the presentation so that you can go as a student when I was doing cultural resources I went to once again, be in the same place where all the other archeologists are at and you know that time I was. Definitely you know, listening to other people's presentations and learning more about what's going on in their part of the country and everything. But then once again, all the hiring managers are right there so that was the benefit and then the company really wants to see you give a presentation rather than ah you know give a poster. So each time it was like the the goal. The presentation was not for me to become you know, ah get my credit that I can you know apply to the next Ted talk series. It was to be a you know, kind of um. You know vehicle to get the company to pay some of the money for me to go to the conference. 08:43.70 archpodnet Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought Heather Heather you're muted. 08:57.37 Heather I Yeah I was just going to say that you know from a company perspective. Um, we are. You know my company encourages us to present and it's not just a matter of us presenting so that we can have it paid For. Um. We could probably have a paid for even if we didn't present um not all companies I'm sure are are you know, go with that line of thinking then a lot of companies may not even pay for it. Um, but I would say that I definitely think the networking is worth it. Um. 09:19.56 archpodnet On. 09:28.29 Heather There is really very few other opportunities for you to network. Um, but then again, you also have to have the personality that you're going to be able to do that. Um, if you're not the type of person that's going to be able to just walk up to people walk up to the booths and start talking to people then maybe that isn't the best way for you to network. Um, you do have to be you know have have ah a personality where you're not too shy. Um, but I do think that these conferences are good for that the networking I think you know like the ses um society for California Archaeology they do a good job of. 10:00.68 archpodnet But. 10:04.64 Heather Of putting. You know some of these luncheons together where they have more seasoned professionals talking to students and they're working with just getting the conversation going um in some of these you know luncheons or happy hours or whatever. Um, so I think you know. 10:23.93 Heather You just have to be you know I don't think that the costs of these association or these um conferences have to be all that much. You have to be creative. Um, for students they're not that much for and a beginning archeologist. They you know they can be but not of you know, Maybe you're. Rooming with other people and just getting creative with it. Um I would say it's also useful if you're going to move into a certain area to focus like maybe like we were talking in my company about um, you know whether or not which conferences should we focus on so you know you have a package. That a company can purchase sponsorship where you do all the lanyards and you have a booth and you really go all out to have a presence at that conference. So you're not going to do that for every conference you're looking at which conference is going to be the most advantageous to do that. 11:13.29 archpodnet Yeah. 11:18.51 Heather And my personal opinion is is I mean I guess obviously it depends on what your business model is but I think you know you want to focus on ones that are more regional when you do these national you're going to Texas if you don't have any work in Texas or if you're a field archeologist and you're not intending to work in Texas. I would definitely be more strategic in which conferences you go to so that the networking makes sense but we have hired several people from conferences full time positions. So and we do hire especially the seas if we we hire lots of as needed staff. 11:42.90 archpodnet Yeah, um, yeah. 11:48.53 archpodnet Ah. 11:57.57 Heather But we've hired several um, full time and that's the one way to really get to know people when you so when you're sitting there having a couple drinks and you're really you know interacting and you know a lot of hiring people is can you can you see yourself spending 8 hours a day with this person and. 11:57.60 archpodnet Um. 12:14.55 Bill White Yeah, yeah. 12:14.74 archpodnet Right? yeah. 12:17.31 Heather Good way of demonstrating that is at a conference like this you can't do it in an interview. 12:19.85 Bill White Um, yeah, yeah, I've gotten hired at several conferences too. 12:27.70 archpodnet Okay, well let's ah I've got a follow up actually to that Heather because that something you said was interesting to me regarding presenting for your company at the conferences. Well we'll talk about that in segment 2 on the other side of the break back in a minute. 12:33.32 Heather On it.